Input mask for date in Excel? (Excel 2000)

Is there a way to use a custom format for dates so the user does not have to type the slashes or the year as in this example: 09/30/05
When I use the custom format of mm/dd/"05", then my vlookup on that cell of course no longer sees a date and no longer gives me the day name in the next cell, e.g. monday or thursday...is there a way to do this and still keep it as a DATE...